PhonePe, Paytm get aggressive for gold; Xiaomi occupies a third of India’s smartphone market

Payments company PhonePe said it sold over 250 kg 24K gold on its platform since the launch of the product in December. Competitor Paytm, which launched its gold offering in July last year, claimed that by mid-April, it had recorded gold transactions worth around 80,000 tolas (approximately 800 kg) spanning 1.5 million customers. The Noida-based company claimed customers had bought 2,000 tolas of gold (approximately 20 kg) online on Akshaya Tritiya. PhonePe, on the other hand, claims Akshaya Tritiya sales of over 45 kg gold worth over Rs 15 crore.

A joint study by industry body Nasscom and Bengaluru-based market research firm Infoholic was conducted among industry and academic experts of over 75 popular engineering institutes to understand if industry-academia convergence can build a better entrepreneurship ecosystem. According to the study, 78 percent of the surveyed universities agree that industry-academia convergence will lead to a better entrepreneurship ecosystem.